Displaying items by tag: Uganda

Thursday, 16 April 2020 22:34

Northern Uganda: a call for intercession

A missionary writes, ‘May we beg for your redoubled prayers as a “Double Whammy” threatens our communities. The Ugandan lockdown seems to be stemming Covid-19 and has just been extended for 21 days. Very tough on children; folk barely earning enough to eat; Sudanese refugees with 30% cut in rations and unable to plant more than a few vegetables; and the elderly with no one to help them. But many have spent lockdown in the fields, preparing to plant. Rains have begun and seeds are beginning to grow. This morning I rode my bicycle past fields of young beans and groundnuts. However, another threat hangs over us now. The locusts experienced in January have bred and millions of young are growing and devastating crops, trees, and cattle fodder. The military and everyone are concentrating on Covid-19. The locusts are spreading towards the huge refugee settlements and West Nile. Massive hunger could weaken the population, and we really wonder what might follow.’

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 14 February 2020 09:54

Africa: locusts, drought, famine

Somalia has declared a national emergency as desert locusts destroy vegetation. An average swarm containing 40 million insects can travel 150 km in 24 hours, devouring enough food to feed 34 million people in that time. The UN said it is a race against time to tackle this invasion amidst ongoing humanitarian challenges. A spokesman said, ‘We do have a chance to nip this problem in the bud, but that’s not what we’re doing at the moment.’ Kenya’s food security is threatened, particularly communities keeping livestock on endangered pastures. Swarms crossed into Uganda on 9 February, and Tanzania and South Sudan are now on the UN’s ‘watch list’. Also, insufficient rain means that over two million Somalis will need emergency food aid this year after the worst harvest in 25 years. 300,000 were displaced in eight months; many have headed for the capital, Mogadishu. Six million Kenyans are food-insecure, while seven million Zimbabweans need aid after successive droughts and an inflation rate of 300%. Urban families are feeling the pinch of soaring prices. See

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 09 January 2020 19:57

Uganda: land theft

When a woman’s husband dies, her neighbours and family often believe that she no longer has a right to the land. Albertina and her family fled to a refugee camp in Uganda’s brutal civil war. Her husband died there. All Albertina had left was her family and her piece of land. When she returned home, neighbours had stolen her plot and refused to move. For the poor Ugandans, a plot of land is where they farm and keep their family alive. Albertina’s neighbours violently threatened her, so she camped on the edges of her rightful property for the next eight years. Finally another widow told Albertina about International Justice Mission (IJM). IJM pursued her case, provided food for Albertina’s grandchildren, and guarded their hut. The fight for her land continues.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 12 September 2019 22:12

Uganda: homeless because of faith

The seventh and youngest child of Lezia Nakayiza, a widow, didn’t know that his family was keeping their Christianity a secret. The 8-year-old boy didn’t realise that telling his Muslim relatives how much he enjoyed a church choir would cause them to attack his family. ‘I could not share my faith with the brothers of my husband as well as the relatives who are radical Muslims’, said Nakayiza. ‘In June my son told one of the relatives of the wonderful choir at church, and that we have been attending the church since March. This was the beginning of our persecution.’ A Christian neighbour told her that the relatives were planning to punish her for leaving Islam, so when she saw many people approaching her house with weapons and shouts of ‘Away with this infidel’, she and her children escaped through the back door. The family is now living at an undisclosed location that is not sustainable.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 30 August 2019 09:44

Uganda: Christian persecution

Charity struggled with depression after her husband became a Muslim, abandoned her, and threatened to take their three children. ‘I just couldn’t let my children become Muslims, but I trusted the Lord to help us through this challenge’, she said. Her prayers were answered when a mission worker gave her persecution-response support. Charity’s children are now in school, and her financial burden is lightened. She asks us to pray that her husband will return to the Lord. Pray also for Sharifa, a Christian who was forced to flee home because she converted from Islam. 20-year-old Asuman needs your prayers. He was beaten and disowned by his family for becoming a Christian. In East Uganda a Christian primary school in the predominately Muslim Kabuna village was demolished because it educates Christian children who converted from Islam and whose parents remain Muslim. Christians across Uganda are experiencing death threats and chaos.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 01 August 2019 23:57

Where hope comes to life

Through Africa Renewal Ministries in Uganda abandoned babies, child sponsorship, and children's transition care programmes are bringing hope and renewal to thousands of vulnerable children. Each age-appropriate programme (0-19 years) focuses on discipleship, education, healthcare, and leadership. Participants include Loving Hearts Babies Home, Early Childhood Development Programme, Child Development Programme, Bethany Children's Village, and the Mwangaza Children's Choir.

Published in Praise Reports
Friday, 21 June 2019 11:22

Uganda: Ebola in frightening phase

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo made the long-feared jump across borders with three cases confirmed in Uganda, including the death of a five-year-old boy. Concern has been mounting that this would happen, underscored by an increase in the number of cases in recent weeks. The World Health Organisation and Ugandan health authorities said the Congolese boy had travelled to Uganda with his family. The other two confirmed cases are the boy's three-year-old brother and his grandmother, 50. They are in isolation at a Ugandan Ebola treatment unit. Eight people who had been in contact with the family are being traced. The Congo outbreak is the second largest and second deadliest in history. The Wellcome Trust said, ’This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping any time soon.’ WHO is expected to come under pressure to declare an international health emergency.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 17 January 2019 21:33

Uganda: mother and pastor fear for their lives

Uganda’s constitution provides for religious freedom, including conversion from one faith to another. Muslims make up 12% of Uganda’s population. Recently, Muslims in eastern Uganda sent a Christian mother to hospital with injuries for praying in Jesus’s name, and tore down a church building nearby. Both the woman and the church’s pastor fear that their lives are in danger. Deborah Gimbo was attacked while praying by herself in her home. She also prays three evenings a week in her home with two Christian women. The assailants said, ‘Today we warn you that you should avoid noisy prayers and the use of Issa [Jesus] in your prayers.’ A local imam told the assailants, ‘People who pray in Jesus’ name should be fought and pressured until they only worship Allah, or are killed’. Pastor Simon Mustafa Waseke, a former Muslim, had his church destroyed by villagers. The assailants threatened to kill him if he stays in the area.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 16 November 2018 00:07

Uganda: Christian boy refuses to convert to Islam

Radical Muslims left a 12-year-old Christian boy unconscious recently, after threatening to strangle him unless he converted to Islam. Emmanuel Nyaiti was walking to his grandmother’s house 200 metres from his home in Moru village when four men ambushed him and took him to a plantation less than a mile away. The boy said he was able to identify two of the attackers. ‘Ali Lukuman tried to persuade me to become a Muslim, which I refused, and he slapped me and I started screaming’, Emmanuel said from his bed at Budaka Health Centre, his speech made difficult from strangulation. He was told, ‘If you want to stay with us in our village, then you have to become a Muslim. If not, then you have to leave.’ The assault was the latest of many which have been reported in eastern Uganda in the past six years. The country’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of the population.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 12 October 2018 00:26

One thousand New Testament translations!

The thousandth New Testament translation, completed with involvement from SIL and Wycliffe Bible Translators, was launched on 11 August in a celebration in northwest Uganda. The translation is for the Keliko people and represents the first time they can hear and read the New Testament in their own language. The Keliko, whose homeland is in South Sudan, travelled from all around to be present. Many came from local refugee camps in Uganda; others hitched rides from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The event was attended by church leaders and local government dignitaries, as well as by international visitors from across Africa, Europe and North America. The translation represents a triumph over adversity. Twice translation efforts were interrupted by civil war. The translators are Episcopalian pastors, very godly men, and they pressed on. Although SIL provided technical and advisory support throughout, this project belongs to the Keliko church.

Published in Praise Reports
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